Christianity and mental health issues tend to be two topics that we do not often hear mentioned in the same conversation. Many of us just do not seem to know what to do with this apparent paradox and how to reconcile the two. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, over 16 million adults in America suffer from depression, at least 18% of Americans report experiencing ongoing anxiety (this is estimated to be as high as 30% because many do not report), and an estimated 5 million are diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in a given year. Most everyone will experience significant grief at some point in his/her lives. John 16:33 says, “…You will have suffering in this world…” Given this guarantee of some measure of suffering in this life, I think it is time that we broach this subject of Christianity and mental health and shed some light on it to give us all a bit of clarity. There is no better example of this in the Bible than the righteous man, Job.
First of all, it is important to acknowledge that suffering comes to everyone, the righteous and the unrighteous alike. As is obvious in the story of Job, God does not keep Christians from danger and suffering. Matthew 5:45 tells us, “…For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” There are those who preach the “health and wealth” gospel, but this is a blatant lie. The first verse of the book of Job reports that “he was a man of perfect integrity who feared God and turned away from evil.” This does not mean, of course, that Job was perfect. Only Jesus was perfect. It simply means that Job had a consistent spiritual relationship with God. If bad things happened to a man about whom this was said (and has an entire book of the Bible solely about his life!), why would we presume that we will live a life free of trouble?
We all respond differently to difficulty in our lives: anxiety, depression, grief, anger, and the list goes on. Job experienced all of these emotions, as well. After his children all died in a terrible wind storm, all of his sheep and servants burned up in a freak lightning storm, Job 1:20 describes his grief: “Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head.” These were all symbols of deep grief at the time. In Job 3:20, Job laments, “Why is light given to one burdened with grief, and life to those whose existence is bitter?” Job was suffering that kind of grief that hurts to the bone. It was the type of grief that you can physically feel in your heart and in your bones. “…his suffering was very intense.” (Job 2:13) The worst possible things that he could possibly have imagined happened – all in one day!!! He expressed the understandable emotion of anxiety. He said “I cannot relax or be still; I have no rest, for trouble comes.” (Job 3:26).
He became depressed. Who would not feel depressed at this point? He was scared and felt that God was being harsh and had abandoned him. He said rash things and later admitted that his utter devastation and grief led him to say things he did not mean. I have been guilty of thinking of Biblical characters as being somehow above the rest of us, maybe not quite like normal, modern-day people. This man was depressed! His world as he knew it had been turned upside down, his plans for his life were ruined, and his wife told him to just curse God and die (Job 1:9). Let’s not be too hard on Mrs. Job, though – she had also just lost all of their children and their wealth all in one afternoon. People say and do rash things when they are upset. Then…THEN…his friends come in with all of their self-righteous “wisdom” and make matters worse.
His friends really did have good intentions. Job 1:11 states that, “They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.” They felt compassion and sympathy for him and wept out loud, tearing their robes and throwing dust on themselves. They loved him so much and were so moved by his suffering that they could not help but grieve for him. Do you have friends like that? Are you a friend like that? If not, you should be.
We are not meant to hold things in and go through life alone. We are not meant to plaster on our fake, Sunday morning, Christian smile and pretend everything is OK when, really, we are falling apart. Sisters, we are all SO guilty of holding it all in and not leaning on those who love us. We say we feel like we are “everyone’s rock and do not want burden others.” I call “hogwash” on this. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that in my counseling office, I’d be a wealthy woman! Those who are strong know how to lean on those who care about them Even Jesus leaned on His disciples when He was exhausted and grieving. When we choose to allow others to help us bear our burdens, we find that the burden is much easier to carry!